American history

Brotherly Love(1791-1831)

During its first 50 years the United States transformed itself from a small republic into an expansive democracy for white Americans. The nation tripled its population, doubled in size, and extended slavery to parts of the Western frontier. For black Americans, this same period was a contradictory mix of community-building for free blacks and entrenched enslavement for those not yet emancipated.

Slavery grew stronger, as the invention of the cotton gin and a booming Southern economy fueled the push westward. In cities like Philadelphia, free blacks sought equal participation in American society by building churches and schools, forming beneficial societies, and petitioning their state legislature. In the aftermath of the Haitian Revolution (1791-1804), several slave uprisings, including Gabriel's Rebellion (1800), Denmark Vesey's Plot (1822), and Nat Turner's Revolt (1831), were poignant reminders of the human desire for freedom -- regardless of the bloody consequences.

1. The Growing New Nation

During the Age of Enlightenment, anything was thought possible, and for African Americans, this included freedom and equality, "the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness." Free blacks and fugitive slaves flocked to the great cities of the North, and Philadelphia shone among them as a haven. With the passage of the country's first gradual abolition act, Philadelphia seemed to be showing the way for the rest of the country to resolve the contradiction of a country founded on independence but built on slavery. But even there, prejudice reigned. Most free blacks lived in poverty and schemes for the colonization of blacks to Africa were planned, to rid the country of the embarrassment of assimilating its black population as free men.

After the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, the economy of the South was forever changed, with cotton the dominant money-making crop. Slavery took on new importance with a massive influx of slaves to the cotton-growing states in the lower South and the West. This forced migration tore many black families apart, and ended their dreams of emancipation

In the Cotton belt, most slaves lived on plantations with less than 50 slaves. They worked in gangs, pressed on by an overseer, for the grueling year-long cycle of cultivation, which culminated in ginning and pressing the crop in January and February. The slave population almost tripled in size between 1790 and 1830. Most slave women had many children, beginning at age 19. Since children were most likely to be sold, this tragedy touched nearly every black family.

In 1781, the estimated population of the United States was 3.5 million. About 575,000 of these were slaves. In 1801, the year Thomas Jefferson became president, the population of the United States was 5,308,000, with 900,000 slaves. In 1830, U.S. population was 12.8 million, with more than 2 million slaves.

The closing of the international slave trade in 1808 forced plantation owners to improve their treatment of slaves. Less branding and limb dismemberment took place as punishment. As a class, slaveholders developed a paternalistic self-image and created a literature of racial superiority which stressed caring for their slaves.

The violence and brutality which undergirded slavery was most apparent when slaves chose to rebel. And the biggest revolt of the era, on the French colony of St. Domingue, set the tone for the bloodshed and repression which soon followed in the American South. The failed attempts of Gabriel's Rebellion in 1800 and Denmark Vesey's Plot in 1822 were followed by Nat Turner's bloody revolt in 1831. Fear among slaveholders in the aftermath led to more stringent control of slaves.

Some blacks, however, were living free. The census of 1790 revealed that 59,000 free blacks lived in the United States -- approximately 27,000 in the North and 32,000 in the South. By 1830, the total number of free blacks had risen to 319,000, with 150,000 living in the North.

While most African Americans lived in poverty, some were able to become financially solvent, forming a middle class. An elite class of blacks was also formed from entrepreneurs who were able to invest in property. During the first 40 years of the United States, free blacks formed vibrant communities in many urban areas. These communities sought full participation in society by building institutions such as churches and mutual aid societies and fighting for the abolition of slavery.

2. Philadelphia

At the end of the 18th century, Philadelphia was a city of hope for African Americans. Pennsylvania had passed the first gradual abolition act, and Philadelphia was home by 1790 to some 2,000 free blacks. Some had bought their freedom after working during the Revolutionary War, some had been freed because by slaveholders moved by revolutionary ideals. All had hopes for the future in the new country built on the ideals of independence, but doubts as to whether the declarations of liberty and equality would apply to them.

Black migration into the city was heavy from the end of the Revolution until about 1815. People came from rural areas in a hundred-mile radius around Philadelphia, as well as from the South, attracted by job prospects and the promise of living among other free black people.

Refugees from the revolution in St. Domingue (later Haiti) and fugitive slaves added to the influx of blacks in the city. Philadelphia was over 90 percent white, but its black community helped buffer the hostility of whites and provided an alternative to rural isolation. Many blacks were able to find work as mariners, day laborers and domestic servants. Many also worked as entrepreneurs, often serving a predominantly black clientele. Both men and women often worked to support their families.

While some destitute blacks lived near the river, a few prospered and were able to invest in income-producing property. By 1796, black communities were growing along the northern and southern borders of the city. By 1830, all of the city's 14,500 black people were free, while the white population had grown to 150,000.

After 1799, a small but growing number of black professionals included doctors, teachers, clergymen, hairdressers, shoemakers, bakers, tailors, sailmakers, teamsters, food caterers, carpenters, musicians, and many other professions. In 1811, the city directory listed 81 black men who owned their own businesses; by 1816, the number was 180. Most women worked as domestic laborers, but some were teachers, or owned their own businesses. Together these people created a black middle class.

The majority of black Philadelphians, however, struggled with poverty, as did most Irish, German and English immigrants. When families applied for aid at the local almshouses they were often required to indenture their children. This happened to both black and white families. However, most black children were indentured to the age of 28, while most white boys were indentured until they were 21, and most white girls until they were 18. Some adults indentured themselves as well.

During the Great Awakening of the 1750s, Philadelphia Quaker Anthony Benezet and his colleague John Woolman challenged slaveholding among their peers and argued that enslaved African Americans should be educated in preparation for eventual freedom.

The Quaker community never encouraged blacks to fully participate alongside whites, but in 1776, Philadelphia's Yearly Meeting issued an order barring members who would not free their slaves. Until his death in 1784, Anthony Benezet remained a staunch anti-slavery advocate, writing numerous pamphlets and running a night school for the black community for nearly 20 years. He believed that black children could learn as readily as their white counterparts.

One of Benezet's students was Absalom Jones, an emerging leader in Philadelphia's black community. A newly freed black man, Jones was relatively prosperous, working as a clerk in his former master's store and purchasing his own home and a second rental property. In 1787, Jones joined forces with Richard Allen and others to create the Free African Society (FAS), the first black mutual aid association in Philadelphia.

„We, the free Africans and their descendants, of the City of Philadelphia, in the State of Pennsylvania, or elsewhere, do unanimously agree, for the benefit of each other, to advance one shilling in silver Pennsylvania currency a month; and after one year's subscription from the date hereof, then to hand forth to the needy of this Society...” - The Free African Society

Richard Allen was an enterprising businessman and a leading black Methodist preacher in the city. At 5 a.m. each morning he conducted separate services for African Americans at St. George's Methodist Church, and throughout the week he preached in outdoor locations.

The Free African Society's original mission was to care for widows and the poor, but the organization began to encompass religious functions as well. Because of discrimination, African Americans could scarcely find plots to bury their dead. The FAS convinced the city fathers to turn over Potter's Field burial ground for their use, and also started issuing marriage licenses for black couples and keeping birth records.

Benjamin Rush, a prominent physician in Philadelphia, worked with Anthony Benezet to write a pamphlet which attacked the institution of slavery. Rush became an even more ardent abolitionist in 1787 inspired by the late Benezet's spirit. That year he joined the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS).

The PAS worked to amend the gradual abolition act of 1780, to prohibit transporting slave children and pregnant women out of Pennsylvania and impose heavier fines for kidnapping free blacks into slavery. Benjamin Franklin became president of the PAS in 1789, the year an assistance plan was announced to create schools and employment opportunities for free black people. Although pro-abolition, many PAS members held onto beliefs of black inferiority.

The Yellow Fever epidemic that hit Philadelphia in the summer of 1793 was the largest epidemic in the country's history, resulting in more than 4,000 deaths. As the death toll climbed, those with means escaped the city, and those left behind were abandoned to their fate.

Benjamin Rush, who stayed to fight the disease, believed (mistakenly) that blacks were immune. He enlisted the aid of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones in recruiting blacks to help the sick and dying. Blacks were now welcomed into the homes of whites, where they performed medical duties and carted away and disposed of the dead.

Blacks had hoped to gain recognition and acceptance for their tireless work. Instead, they were further reviled after the cooler weather in November brought relief from the mosquito-transmitted disease.

Publisher Mathew Carey's pamphlet, A Short Account of the Malignant Fever, so popular that it went through four editions, accused blacks of profiting from the disaster. Richard Allen and Absalom Jones published a response to the pamphlet, in which the courage and dedication of blacks during the plague was extolled and they showed that proportionally as many blacks as whites had died due to the fever.

3. Freedom and Resistance

Philadelphia was a stop on the Underground Railroad leading fugitive slaves North, and many decided to stay, strengthening the abolitionist movement in the city. In September, 1830, Philadelphia hosted the first meeting of the American Society of Free Persons of Colour (which later became the National Negro Convention). This was just one of numerous organizations black people created to further their community and the cause of emancipation.

More than 100 beneficial societies were founded in the 1830s, to assist poor blacks in times of sickness, disability, and distress. Most of these societies were formed by blacks, and 62 were women's societies. The black community in Philadelphia also created schools for their children, since black children were denied access to public schools until 1829, when the first black public school was erected, followed by the second in 1832.

By organizing, black people were able to have a voice in legislative issues affecting them. In January, 1832, the black community presented a Memorial to Pennsylvania legislators, arguing against a resolution recently passed by the House banning black emigration into the state, and urging the repeal of some existing fugitive slave laws.

Black women in Philadelphia were very active. In 1790, approximately 14 percent of black and white households were headed by women, and for almost all working class families, women as well as men worked outside the home to support their families.

Black women found work primarily as domestic servants and washerwomen, but some women worked as teachers or owned their own businesses. Women from families in Philadelphia's black elite were generally well educated. Some worked as teachers, but most were not employed outside their homes.

A number of black women gained prominence in Philadelphia as activists. James Forten and his wife Charlotte had three daughters: Margaretta, Harriet, and Sarah. All were active abolitionists, and they hosted visiting speakers at their home. In December 1833, the Forten women helped establish the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society, with members from the city's white and black elite.

The Douglasses were also very active in the abolitionist cause. Robert and Grace Douglass had one daughter, Sarah Mapps Douglass, and a son, Robert, Jr., a painter. Grace and Sarah were active in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society. Sarah founded a school for black children in 1820, and gave classes in health issues to black women.

4. The Black Church

When people accepted the faith, it did not make them content to be slaves. What it did was, it opened up to them the possibilities that are available to those people who see themselves as children of this eternal and almighty God. - Rev. Jeffrey Leath

When Richard Allen was 17 and the slave of a Delaware planter, he experienced a religious conversion that changed his life forever. For Allen, spiritual liberation led to physical liberation, as his master was also converted to Methodism and agreed to let Allen buy his freedom because slavery was questioned by his new faith. Allen went on to preach throughout South Carolina, New York, Maryland, Delaware and Pennsylvania, before settling in Philadelphia, where he dreamed of founding an African church.

Absalom Jones did not earn his freedom until the age of 38. As a child he was a servant in his master's house, where he learned to read. In 1770, at age 23, he wed fellow slave Mary. The two worked and saved, first to purchase Mary's freedom after 8 years, and then for six more years until Jones' owner let him buy his own freedom.

The African Church of Philadelphia was made reality through the Free African Society established by Allen and Absalom Jones. With the help of Benjamin Rush and Robert Ralston, a white businessman, FAS leaders drew up a plan to organize the African Church on July 25, 1791.

Soon thereafter, Allen, Jones, and others began soliciting funds, again with the help of Rush. Their appeals met with resistance from white church leaders, many of whom had been supportive of the black community, but disapproved of a separate black church. However, the FAS raised enough money to buy two adjacent lots on Fifth Street, just one block from the State House.

In the fall of 1792, several black leaders were still attending services at St. George's Methodist Church and had recently helped to expand the church. The black churchgoers were told to sit upstairs in the new gallery. When they mistakenly sat in an area not designated for blacks, they were forcibly removed from the seats they had helped build. According to Allen, "... we all went out of the church in a body, and they were no longer plagued by us."

The following spring, Allen, Jones, and others broke ground for the African Church. However, more funds were needed, and construction could not begin until August, 1793. To celebrate, black leaders held a banquet. First, one hundred white construction workers and two leading white citizens sat down and were served a feast by free blacks. Then the white guests rose and about 50 black people sat down. They were then served by "six of the most respectable of the white company."

Work on the church was again postponed by the Yellow Fever epidemic, but was resumed in December 1793. The FAS was non-denominational, including mostly Episcopal and Methodist members, but the majority of the blacks in the group favored uniting with the Episcopal Church. The African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, one of the first black churches in the country, opened its doors on July 17, 1794.

Although Absalom Jones had been chosen as its minister, the first sermon was given by a white minister, Samuel Magaw, who spoke paternalistically of the gratitude that black church members should have to the white Christians who helped them. Less than a month later, Jones wrote a response to Magaw's sermon.

Richard Allen wanted to remain a Methodist. In May, 1794, he bought an old blacksmith shop and had it moved to within a few blocks of St. Thomas's. There he founded an African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church he called Bethel, "House of God." In time, St. Thomas's congregation became composed primarily of the black elite, while Bethel attracted members from the entire black community.

Methodist worship, which was warm, simple, and emotional was more appealing to ordinary black people than Episcopalianism, which was more formal and structured. The Philadelphia church became known as Mother Bethel, as other congregations sprang up across the country. The white Methodist Church remained unfriendly and worked to maintain as much control of the black Church as possible.

Richard Allen published his autobiography, The Life, Experience, and Gospel Labors of the Rt. Rev. Richard Allen . . ., in 1833, at the age of 73. His wife, Sara Allen, was also very active in the church, organizing the Daughters of Conference, a women's group providing support to church ministers.

Jarena Lee was the first woman to preach under the auspices of the AME church. The child of free black parents, Lee was born in New Jersey in 1783 and worked as a servant in the home of a white family, 60 miles from her home.

Strongly affected when she went to hear Richard Allen preach, Lee determined to preach herself. At first rebuffed by Allen, who said that women could not preach at the Methodist Church, Lee persisted, and eight years after his initial refusal Allen allowed her access to the pulpit after hearing her spontaneous exhoration during a sermon at Bethel AME Church. Lee travelled all over the United States preaching her gospel of freedom, even venturing into the South to preach to slaves.

Rebecca Cox Jackson was another rare woman preacher in the black church. She eventually became a Shaker eldress and founded a Shaker community in Philadelphia. Born in 1795 to a free family, Jackson had a religious awakening in 1830 during a thunderstorm and determined to use her spiritual gifts.

She refused to join any church, but developed a large following of women. She was at first criticized by the black church for breaking up its members. When Morris Brown, Richard Allen's successor as Bishop of the AME Church, came to hear her preach, intending to stop her, he was won over instead.

5. Colonization

Whereas our ancestors (not of choice) were the first successful cultivators of the wilds of America, we their descendants feel ourselves entitled to participate in the blessings of her luxuriant soil... We will never separate ourselves voluntarily from the slave population of this country; they are our brethren by the ties of consanguinity, of suffering and of wrong.
- Resolution of assembled free blacks, Bethel AME Church, Philadelphia, January 15, 1817

As the number of free blacks living in northern cities increased, many whites became resentful. After 1800, white hostility toward black residents grew. Wealthy whites feared vagrancy and crime, and poor whites resented the competition over jobs. As refugees fleeing the revolution in St. Domingue flocked into the country, concern over the influence of potential rebels mounted. This concern seemed justified by attempted insurrections in the South.

Fourth of July celebrations became the focus of racial hostility for whites and blacks alike. On July 4, 1804 in Philadelphia, several hundred young blacks roughed up whites on the streets. The following year, whites turned on blacks at the celebration in front of Independence Hall, chasing them away. This trend continued in subsequent years, effectively barring blacks from participating in public celebrations of American independence.

Discriminatory legislation began appearing in 1805, calling for bans on black immigration, or a special tax on black households. The black community, the Pennsylvania Abolition Society, and the Society of Friends petitioned the legislature, and the bills failed.

White intolerance of free blacks manifested itself at the national level with the formation of The American Colonization Society, founded in 1817 by the Reverend Robert Finley to help free black people emigrate to Africa.

With the assistance in Washington, D.C. of his brother-in-law Elias B. Caldwell, Clerk of the Supreme Court, and Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star Spangled Banner," he raised the support of prominent white men, who agreed that sending freed Africans back to Africa would be best for all concerned. The society gained government support with its 1820 petition to Congress.

The last census shows the number of free people of color of the United States, and their rapid increase. Supposing them to increase in the same ratio, it will appear how large a proportion of our population will, in the course of even a few years, consist of persons of that description.

... The least observation shows that this description of persons are not, and cannot be, either useful or happy among us; and many considerations, which need not be mentioned, prove, beyond dispute, that it is best, for all the parties interested, that there should be a separation... - The American Colonization Society

The idea of colonization was not new. Since 1787, efforts had been made to find a home for freed blacks out of America, with both white and black support. Paul Cuffe, a free black shipping merchant, was a proponent of colonization. He felt that black people living in America would never be treated as equals and would be better off elsewhere. A Quaker convert, Cuffe was inspired by the idea of bringing Christianity to Africa, and as a merchant he was interested in establishing trade between Africa and black American businessmen. In 1811, Cuffe sailed to Sierra Leone, a British Colony on the west coast of Africa.

James Forten, a prominent black Philadelphian businessman, supported Cuffe's schemes. Other black leaders, such as Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, knew only too well the effects of prejudice, and were interested in colonization.

Soon after its founding, the American Colonization Society contacted James Forten to help recruit colonists from Philadelphia. On January 15, 1817, black leaders called a meeting at Bethel to discuss the idea. Almost 3,000 black men packed the church. Forten and three prominent black ministers, Allen, Jones, and John Gloucester, spoke in favor of emigrating to Africa. However, when Forten called for those in favor, not one voice answered. When he called for those opposed, one tremendous "no" rang out that seemed "as it would bring down the walls of the building." As Forten wrote to Paul Cuffe, "there was not one sole [sic] that was in favor of going to Africa."

Free blacks across the country had varying responses to the question of colonization. In Richmond, the idea was also rejected, but Abraham Camp, a free black living in Illinois, a free state that was nonetheless inhospitable to blacks, embraced the idea, as his letter to the Secretary of the American Colonization Society attests.

6. Conspiracy and Rebellions

I heard a loud noise in the heavens, and the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of man, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent, for the time was fast approaching, when the first should be last and the last should be first.- Nat Turner

In 1791, revolt broke out in the French Caribbean colony of St. Domingue, which was located on the western third of the island of Hispaniola (the eastern two-thirds was owned by Spain and called Santo Domingo). One of the wealthiest colonies in the Americas, St. Domingue produced half of all the sugar and coffee exported to Europe and the United States. It owed its wealth to the work of slaves, who were treated with brutality.

The rebellion started when free blacks were not granted citizenship, as France's Declaration of the Rights of Man had decreed. Slaves joined in the revolt and returned the brutality their masters had shown them, murdering and raping whites and torching the island.

Because slaves and free blacks outnumbered whites by a ratio of more than 10 to 1, the revolt quickly spread through the port city of Cap Français and surrounding plantations. In 1794, the National Assembly of France abolished slavery in its colonies, and in January, 1800, when Spain formally ceded its colonial claims to France, Toussaint L'Ouverture, the leading general of the black revolt, became the undisputed leader of the entire island.

But the battle was not over. Napoleon Bonaparte, who had seized power in France in 1799, was building a global empire with aspirations in the New World. In 1802, he dispatched 20,000 troops to Saint Domingue to depose Toussaint and reinstitute slavery. Toussaint was captured and exiled to France, where he died in prison the following year.

The rebels continued to fight, and by the end of 1803 Napoleon had to concede defeat in Saint Domingue. Having lost 35,000 men, the French evacuated their former colony. In the 13 years of fighting, more than 100,000 black lives had been lost. On January 1, 1804, President Jean Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the free republic of Haiti -- deriving the name from an indigenous word meaning "a higher place."

Word of the rebellion in the Caribbean reached the United States, inspiring slaves with hope and whites with fear. In 1799, a slave named Gabriel was caught stealing a pig in Richmond, Virginia. When he was apprehended by an overseer, Gabriel attacked the white man, biting off his ear. For this, Gabriel was branded in open court and spent a month in jail.

Inspired by St. Domingue, Gabriel felt it was time for American slaves to revolt. Gabriel was a skilled blacksmith and was allowed to hire himself out in Richmond and on neighboring plantations. In his travels, he met with other slaves and began hammering swords out of scythes and molding bullets. He recruited an army of conspirators from Richmond and other Virginia towns, preparing the most far-reaching slave revolt ever planned in the United States.

They chose the night of August 30, 1800 to strike. But as they waited for the appointed time, it began to rain heavily, making roads impassable. They decided to postpone the attack, but before they could carry it out, the plot was betrayed. Apprehended slaves were granted immunity for providing testimony about the conspiracy. The trial of at least 65 slaves lasted two months, with Vice President Thomas Jefferson offering advice to Virginia Governor James Monroe on how to deal with the rebels. Twenty-six rebels were executed, including Gabriel, and their owners were reimbursed for their value.

Although the Richmond revolt had not come about, slaveowners felt a tangible fear in its aftermath. In 1801, when Jefferson became president, he called Toussaint and his army cannibals and attempted to stop information about St. Domingue from reaching the U.S.

He sent a new consul, Tobias Lear, to the island and offered assistance to Napoleon in his efforts to regain control. When the French admitted defeat in 1803, Napoleon gave up all his aspirations for the New World, and sold the 830,000 square-mile Louisiana Territory to the United States for only $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States.

In 1818, Denmark Vesey, a member of the African church in Charleston, decided it was time for blacks to lose their shackles. The former property of a slave-ship captain, Vesey had first-hand experience of slavery's brutality. He carefully planned the revolt for four years, with the help of Gullah Jack, a conjurer from Angola.

But they were betrayed by a Charleston slave in May of 1822, and the revolt was over before it began. The conspirators were brought to trial, 35 were executed and 42 were deported. News of the planned revolt, which had involved thousands of peoplee, including many trusted servants, shocked the South. In Charleston, the AME church was torn down to restrict communication and autonomy among blacks.

In 1831, Nat Turner's Rebellion broke out near Jerusalem, Virginia. Turner, born in 1800, saw religious visions from an early age and preached to other slaves. In August of 1831, he believed God sanctioned him to strike back against the white oppressors.

Without a definite plan to guide them, Turner and seven other slaves began to kill, entering their master's chamber in the middle of the night. Vowing to kill all whites, the slaves brutally murdered men, women, and children during a bloody 36-hour rampage. The insurrection grew to over 40 men. At least 57 whites were bludgeoned, stabbed, and hacked to death.

Close to 1,000 Virginia and federal military troops were called out, and at least 100 innocent blacks were killed. Over 50 suspected rebels were caught immediately, but Turner remained at large for almost two months. When finally brought to trial and hanged, Turner was defiant and unrepentant, still believing he had been empowered by God to kill. In the aftermath of the rebellion, a hysterical climate reigned in the South, leading to mob lynching and false accusations of conspiracy.

7. Growth and Entrenchment of Slavery

This Ginn, if turned with horses or by water, two persons will clean as much cotton in one Day as a Hundred persons could cleane in the same time
- Eli Whitney, inventor of the cotton gin

Although there was some hope immediately after the Revolution that the ideals of independence and equality would extend to the black American population, this hope died with the invention of the cotton gin in 1793. With the gin (short for engine), raw cotton could be quickly cleaned; Suddenly cotton became a profitable crop, transforming the southern economy and changing the dynamics of slavery. The first federal census of 1790 counted 697,897 slaves; by 1810, there were 1.2 million slaves, a 70 percent increase.

Slavery spread from the seaboard to some of the new western territories and states as new cotton fields were planted, and by 1830 it thrived in more than half the continent. Within 10 years after the cotton gin was put into use, the value of the total United States crop leaped from $150,000 to more than $8 million.

This success of this plantation crop made it much more difficult for slaves to purchase their freedom or obtain it through the good will of their masters. Cotton became the foundation for the developing textile industry in New England, spurring the industrial revolution which transformed America in the 19th century.

From 1790 to 1810, close to 100,000 slaves moved to the new cotton lands to the south and west. From 1810 until the Civil War, 100,000 slaves were forced westward each decade -- a half million in total. As cotton cultivation spread, slaveholders in the tobacco belt, whose crop was no longer profitable, made huge profits by selling their slaves. This domestic slave trade devastated black families. American-born slaves were torn from the plantations they had known all their lives, placed in shackles and force-marched hundreds of miles away from their loved ones.

Since the 1790s, abolitionists had been demanding that the United States put an end to its international slave trade. The Pennsylvania Abolition Society, the Quakers in New York, and other organizations presented anti-slave trade memorials to Congress.

In January 1800, free black people in Philadelphia petitioned Congress to end the trade. In the meantime, though, the cotton boom spurred slaves imported from Africa: 20,000 came to Georgia and South Carolina in 1803 alone. Finally, on January 1, 1808, Congress did officially ban the international slave trade, a right granted it under the terms of the U.S. Constitution.

Black communities throughout the country celebrated the long-awaited event. Absalom Jones gave a sermon at Philadelphia's African Church, commemorating the day as one of thanksgiving. Even following the ban, however, an illegal international slave trade continued.

The cotton boom and the resulting demand for slaves brought increased danger for northern free blacks: the possibility of being kidnapped and sold into slavery in the South. The practice of kidnapping was frighteningly widespread. The 1793 Fugitive Slave Act enabled any white person to claim a black person as a fugitive, unless another white person testified otherwise.Blacks were not allowed to testify against whites in court according to southern law.

Absalom Jones petitioned Congress for the protection of free blacks, to no avail. Children were highly vulnerable to kidnapping rings. Often indentured and living away from their parents, they could disappear without anyone noticing, since their employers assumed they had gone to their families. And since children changed so much as they grew, there was little likelihood of their being recognized and rescued after years of slavery.

Many southern slaveowners took a "no questions asked" approach to purchasing slaves. Kidnapped free blacks joined the slaves who had been imported into the lower South, where they were work conditions were difficult and unhealthy.

The spread of slavery westward led to bitter debate in Congress, as new states entering the Union could tip the balance between proslavery and free voting blocs. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 resolved a crisis over the admission of Missouri as a slave state, and for a while, established a boundary for slave lands westward across the Louisiana purchase territories. But as the century progressed, the spirit of compromise would prove increasingly fragile.